Taiwan lantern festival projects history on monuments

The importance of the North Gate and the story’s complexity made the brightness, capability, and color range of the Barco projector ideal

Spark Zhu, Technical Director at Zhu & Yong

Full of spectacle and music, the Taipei Lantern Festival welcomes many thousands every year to mark the end of festivities following the Lunar New Year and the first full moon of the year.

Traditionally, the festival has been celebrated by carrying hand lanterns, but today it is a high-tech, days-long festival that highlights the city’s cultural attractions.

As thousands streamed through Beimen, the city’s North Gate, they were greeted with a narrative projected onto each of the building’s four facades, a show made possible by Barco’s HDQ-2K40.

Beimen is the North Gate of the old Taipei Walled City. This year the Gate told the story of General Huacheng Chen, the Westside Giant, who protected the city and its people from pirates.

The square around Beimen was renovated in recent years following the removal of a motorway, making it a prominent venue for the nine-day festival.

“The importance of the North Gate and the story’s complexity made the brightness, capability, and color range of the Barco projector ideal,” said Spark Zhu, Technical Director at Zhu & Yong.

“The HDQ-2K40 was designed with the road in mind,” said Barco’s Anna Miao. “Its modular design makes the HDQ simple to install and service. It provides sharp, ultra-bright images, thanks to its 40,000 lumens light output and 2K resolution. It displays stunning images with vibrant colors time after time. What's more, the HDQ is also equipped with Barco’s high-end ImagePRO technology with Athena scaler for flexible scaling.”